SMiLE release thoughts from a returnee and some questions for the scholars

[18thofMay]

Fishmonk consider this in 66

http://troun.tripod.com/smilebrian2.html

BRIAN WILSON
pop think in
This article originally appeared in Melody Maker, Oct. 6, 1966.

PEACE - Relative peace must be nice in New York.

FEAR - Not knowing what to expect is the only reason for fear.

DRUNK - I don't know anyone who gets drunk. In fact, I haven't been drunk myself for 3 years. There's no point in it. It isn't really fun. Why bother?

HONESTY - It's great and groovy and kicks all roleld into one big mind-blower. No one should be without it.

SUICIDE - It only makes things worse. You can't solve anything by killing yourself. I mean, things can always get better, but if you're dead, they may not.

WATTS - It's only 4 miles from my original home, where my mother still lives. We didn't panic - she just didn't go outside the house.

CRIME - Very consistent.

POLICE - They're nice men, I think.

KOREA - I was 11 years old and primarily concerned with baseball.

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - There seems to be a trend toward non-violence today. More and more kids are thinking love and peace and friendship, instead of hate and spite.

SCHOOL - I wonder how much longer school will be compulsory? Very soon, I think, education will not only be free-form, but free for the taking or leaving.

TIME - Time is fine when its in cadence.

STEREO - I can't enjoy stereo much. I'm deaf in one ear.

EAR - The right one.

DRUGS - An underground train.

PATRIOTISM - Beer and brass bands.

HYMN - I think I could write one someday.

ORGAN - My dad gave me a pipe organ for my birthday - that's what i'll write the hymn on. Or at.

DOOR - The door has been opened to a whole new universe of experience for me.

NEWSPAPER - I don't read the newspapers too much because they depress me.

SWIMMING POOL - I have just rediscovered the delights of swimming. I'm completely turned on to swimming pools again. For a while, they bored me. Now I take a swim once a day and I'm completely healthy.

ALBUM - Our next album will be better the Pet Sounds. It will be as much an improvement over Sounds as that was over Summer Days.

RECORDING STUDIO - My recording studio has become a castle, with a wing for everyone.

TELEVISION - Someday I want to make commercials for TV - with a new twist.

DRUMS - Someday I want to write a symphony for drums.

HOLLYWOOD BOWL - The sound men at the Bowl are not rock n' roll sound men. I would advise people who want to play there and sound good, to change their plans or plan their changes.

SURFING - It's a very challenging sport. I've never been able to meet the challenge.

LYRICS - Let's make them all free-form, so we don't get hung up on making rhymes.

DRUG SONGS - There are myriad drug songs on the pop music market today. I don't know which they are.

MIRROR - Have you tried the mirror technique or the subconscious? I'm reading a book about it - I'm fascinated by the mind and hypnosis and things like that.

CAR - One day everyone will sit up in his car and fall out to the groovy sounds of cartridge tapes. Do I sound like a commercial?

SUCCESS - Came very easily to me, professionally speaking.

GLASSES - I would recommend that everyone who gets eye strain when they read to go to an optometrist and get reading glasses so that they can read more and longer. This is what I did, and I really do think everyone should do it.

RAIN - It's purifying. It cleanses the earth and helps things grow. It's spiritual too.

AUTOGRAPHS - I would suggest to every girl who collects autographs that she has them analyzed. Amazing revelations.

THE MOON - Funny you should mention that - I've been reading a book about moon dieties and about how the moon affects women's personalities. Fascinating.

PUBLICISTS - Professional wordsmen.

[hypehat]

Fishmonk, I know I haven't been supportive of your efforts thus far, but this is really a bit much.

I respect your points about the complexity of Smile, but picking two songs the lyricist never took much pride in doesn't strengthen matters.

I mean, Occam's razor. VDP turns up at Brian's house, and Brian starts off about how healthy eating is important and all that. He then goes to the piano, and tells VDP he wants a song about that. How likely is VDP going to be able to think up heavy drug allusion quickly?

[Andrew G. Doe]

Now what are wind chimes?...
...well, I know many will disagree and say "wind chimes are just wind chimes" but I'll go ahead and say it, the Wind Chimes in the song are Death

The lyric, "in the late afternoon you're hung up on wind chimes", in this case the "late afternoon" is, well, the late afternoon of life, old age, the twilight years. Being hung up on Wind Chimes means your preoccupied with your own death, with mortality. "Though it's hard I try not to look at my wind chimes".

Wind Chimes is not a song about Wind or Air at all. It has nothing to do with the elements. That connection is just the result of the title. Wind Chimes is about death, it's about how we as a culture are hung up on death, and how we need to let go of our hang ups and flow with life, and recognize the beauty and necessity of death.

Small problem with this premise - Marilyn has been quoted as saying (in the Preiss book, I think) that they bought some wind chimes one day, and Brian was inspired to write a song about them. It's a song about... wind chimes. That's all.

You remind me of an overly religious person, combing the sacred texts of their creed and extracting meanings never intended (examples: Rastafarians and Jehovahs Witnesses).

[Andrew G. Doe]

So you guys think Wind Chimes was just about Wind Chimes?
Considering we're all here because we think that Brian was some kind of genius on the cutting edge of psychedelia, you guys aren't giving him much credit. You just want to play it safe and assume that there was no depth, no metaphorical or philosophical content of any kind, and that everything about SMiLE was right on the surface. Brian wasn't about literalism. He's not a straightforward, easy to understand, direct, practical person. He hired a lyricist that was a master of word play and pun.

I dunno, I think you SMiLE literalists are underestimating Brian.

I think he hired VDP because he liked the sound of his words, not necessarily because he understood the word-play behind them.

[Dunderhead]

I think Brian is much much smarter and more articulate than people make him out to be.

Van Dyke Parks once said that he came up with all the SMiLE material, and that Brian just gave him "dum dum dum dum" and that he came up with the words.
However we know that's not exactly true, now is it? Brian an Van Dyke spent a lot of time together, and Van Dyke even lived with Brian for a period didn't he? They hung out with eachother, worked on Brian's weird little skits, wrote songs. They talked to one another. They were mutually responsible for developing the thematic basis of SMiLE, of cultivating Brian's inspiration, and refining it.

Think about Tony Asher on Pet Sounds, Brian went to him and told him what he wanted for the lyrics. There's a quote from Asher about I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, where Asher says that was the only song where he didn't "get" the feelings Brian wanted him to evoke. On these Pet Sounds tracks, Brian had something in mind, he had an idea, a theme, a direction. He was using Tony to sharpen the point. The same thing happened on SMiLE, none of these ideas I'm describing are beyond Brian's intellectual sphere, he understood them, and mutually worked with Van Dyke to refine them.

Brian had a vision for things, he had an idea, a plan, an inclination. He didn't always know exactly how to make it happen right from the start, but it was there festering in his mind. Brian was the "director" of these projects. Like a good film director, a good music producer needs to know what he wants. He needs to give the people working under him space enough to let their talents shine, but its up to the producer to provide the vision that brings everything together.

Small problem with this premise - Marilyn has been quoted as saying (in the Preiss book, I think) that they bought some wind chimes one day, and Brian was inspired to write a song about them.

That's Marilyn's perspective. Not Brian's. She wasn't necessarily privy to Brian's every thought, every inclination, ever whim, every flight of fancy or association. It really depends on the details. It could have been:
"I brought home some wind chimes, then right there on the spot Brian and Van Dyke sat down and wrote the song all in one go and I was privy to the whole session and they never mentioned anything other than wind chimes."
or it could have been
"I brought home some wind chimes, Brian had a strange fascination with them for several days, sort of gestated on them, had conversations with Van Dyke I wasn't privy to, and then the next week played me a version of Wind Chimes."

In the one case sure, the song is about wind chimes, in the other case that version of events doesn't really preclude the song from having metaphorical content. I don't believe Marilyn's impression of the songs inspiration is wrong, but again, she's not Brian, and I don't think her vague undetailed story is in any way shape or form damning evidence to my "theory".

I mean, Occam's razor. VDP turns up at Brian's house, and Brian starts off about how healthy eating is important and all that. He then goes to the piano, and tells VDP he wants a song about that. How likely is VDP going to be able to think up heavy drug allusion quickly?

I've heard that Van Dyke came up with Heroes opening line "I've been in this town..." on the spot. But did he come up with all the songs he wrote on the spot with no thought or discussion. Van Dyke and Brian would sit up at night, in Brian's sandbox writing songs together. They would talk, discuss, collaborate. The writing of SMiLE was not an episode of $100000 Pyramid. It's not like Brian had an egg timer on his piano and demanded Van Dyke to drop lyrics on the spot or be fired.

I mean, Occam's razor: Brian and Van Dyke or whoever are hanging out smoking a joint. They get the stupid idea to use vegetables as a euphemism for weed (this type of activity is pretty common while under the influence), they laugh their heads off and Brian says "you know man that'd be great". Maybe he already had the idea to do a song about vegetables, maybe that was what caused him to bring them up in the first place, maybe the idea added a whole new dimension to the song that Brian loved.
I don't see anything terribly complex about the explanation, in fact it feels much more organic and honest than your explanation that SMiLE songs were quickies that they pounded out in five minutes without discussion....

Again, What's with the giggling and laughing and coughing on this track? Do you all honestly believe that Brian put coughing on the track because well...vegetables make people choke? I thought the song was about how vegetables were *GOOD* for you, why would Brian want to have people think veggies make you cough and choke to death? That doesn't fit in in any way at all with the "it's just about veggies" explanation.
And once more, why did Van Dyke use the word "tripped" in the early lyrics? Trip is a very very very very loaded word when spoken among a group of proto-hippie consciousness seekers who mystified psychedelic drug use. Van Dyke is admired for his wordplay and his puns, why is this the one time a pun was NOT intended? Nobody has yet answered that.
Furthermore why did Brian remove the lyric in subsequent versions? If it wasn't about drugs...what was he worried about...?

Finally, I'd like to repost the end of the Goodbye Surfing article. I think this is very strong evidence that Brian was a very intelligent man who was well aware of the depth behind the lyrics and themes of SMiLE. It's a very articulate description, that shows Brian knew exactly what was going on with all this stuff. AGD you say Brian hired Van Dyke just because he liked the sound of his lyrics, but that he didn't understand them. I think that's totally bogus, Brian understood all the lyrics on SMiLE for sure. He was really well aware of all the nuance, and helped Van Dyke develop the ideas.

"It's a man at a concert," he said. "All around him there's the audience, playing their roles, dressed up in fancy clothes, looking through opera glasses, but so far away from the drama, from life—'Back through the opera glass you see the pit and the pendulum drawn.'"
The music begins to take over. 'Columnated ruins domino.' Empires, ideas, lives, institutions—everything has to fall, tumbling like dominoes.
He begins to awaken to the music; sees the pretentiousness of everything. 'The music hall a costly bow.' Then even the music is gone, turned into a trumpeter swan, into what the music really is.
'Canvas the town and brush the backdrop.' He's off in his vision, on a trip. Reality is gone; he's creating it like a dream. 'Dove-nested towers.' Europe, a long time ago. 'The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne.' The poor people in the cellar taverns, trying to make themselves happy by singing.
Then there's the parties, the 'drinking, trying to forget the wars, the battles at sea. "While at port a do or die.' Ships in the harbor, battling it out. A kind of Roman empire thing.
'A choke of grief.' At his own sorrow and the emptiness of his life, because he can't even cry for the suffering in the world, for his own suffering.
And then, hope. 'Surf's up! . . . Come about hard and join the once and often spring you gave.' Go back to the kids, to the beach, to childhood.
"'I heard the word'—of God; 'Wonderful thing'—the joy of enlightenment, of seeing God. And what is it? 'A children's song!' And then there's the song itself; the song of children; the song of the universe rising and falling in wave after wave, the song of God, hiding the love from us, but always letting us find it again, like a mother singing to her children."

Pay attention to that last part. "the song of God, hiding his love from us, but always letting us find it again"
now read this bit from Alan Watts' book The Book On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.

hm....I wonder where Brian got that idea from...
that's really the sentiment of Watts' book. That the point of life finding the hidden beauty of God in the world as if a giant game of hide and seek.
Brian was up on his stuff. He wasn't just some bumbling weirdo who couldn't comprehend the ideas behind his own music.

But this is just my outlook on SMiLE, which I think does it much more justice than just avoiding saying SMiLE was about anything. You have to read between the lines, try and put yourself in the mindset of Brian and his friends during their whole crazy adventure. There are hours, days, weeks, months of conversations and experiences that nobody captured on tape. SMiLE didn't happen in the confines of a few hours of studio time and a couple writing sessions. SMiLE was life, and everything around Brian flowed into it, and Brian's vision tied it all together neatly.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Are you actually aware of the basic premise behind the phrase "Occam's Razor" ?  Here it is from the man himself:

"Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora"... which translates to...

"It is futile to do with more things that which can be done with fewer."

The most commonly quoted version is that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily. The most generally accepted, if slightly inaccurate, modern meaning is "the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one". I think you'll agree that this is entirely at odds with your increasingly fantastic (in the strictest sense of the word) assumptions.

[Jay]

Are you actually aware of the basic premise behind the phrase "Occam's Razor" ?  Here it is from the man himself:

"Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora"... which translates to...

"It is futile to do with more things that which can be done with fewer."

The most commonly quoted version is that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily. The most generally accepted, if slightly inaccurate, modern meaning is "the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one". I think you'll agree that this is entirely at odds with your increasingly fantastic (in the strictest sense of the word) assumptions.

Do you know everything about...everything? Man, you're a walking encyclopedia,Thesaurus, and Wiki Reader all rolled into one. 

[Dunderhead]

Well I suppose AGD is well set in his ways after all these years.
You're all welcome to disagree, but I think I'm doing a much better job of getting into Brian's mindset and inspiration than many of you who want dismiss there being any deeper meaning to anything on SMiLE.

AGD you wanted to use that story of wind chimes to blow my theory out of the water. I painted two equally plausible scenarios that could each fit into her version of events. I thought I made a valid point, that her perspective is only a fraction of the true picture and didn't preclude the types of metaphorical associations I was suggesting.

You obviously disagreed. Why?

Take a look at the points I made about Vega-Tables. Why do you think they are invalid? Why do you believe Brian wanted to record coughing for the backing track? Because vegetables make people choke?
What do you think about the original lyrics to the song, why do you think Brian changed them, why do you think Van Dyke's pun was unintentional?

I'd love to hear some refutations of the individual points that make up my theories. I'd love to hear some alternate perspectives. But I don't think you SMiLE literalists have any, no offense. Your assumption is that none of it had any reason, and Brian was just drifting along without any reason as to why he was doing any of the things he was doing. Which I don't really buy.

Even in Wind Chimes. Why does a tear roll down the cheek of the person in the song? Why is the singer trying to avoid looking at his wind chimes? The term "hang up" also really suggests sort of an unhealthy preoccupation as well. Brian was a "true student of spoken hip", hang up was part of that language, it had a certain connotation, a certain meaning beyond just "interested in". You have to think about the language in the way they thought about the language, some of these hipisms hadn't yet really entered our culture in their modern innocuous forms. Square people were left scratching their heads at spoken hip. So considering that, why did Wind Chimes cause a hang up?

I also have to admit I am an ardent adherent to romantic Hermeneutics, which encourages these types of close readings, or thinking about the language the same way the author would have, and "reading your way into" the author. The good practitioner of hermeneutics seeks to know the author on a deep level, better than the author knows himself. I don't really think the literal interpretation does that, it mostly hand waves away everything as being "a stretch" or as "reading too much into things". However your method doesn't answer the questions I've posed, mine at least makes an attempt.

[Chris Moise]

The December handwritten list...historically accurate, you say?  Yeah, I like that idea.  Okay, lets start with Heroes and Villains, we have that one.  We'll just put the one from the middle of December on there.  What's that you say?  We have never heard a version from the middle of December?  Well, let's just stick the February one on there, it's close enough.  Next?  I'm In Great Shape, hmmm, that's a little tougher.  Just how does that one go again?  It's attached to Barnyard?  Well, it was when it was a part of Heroes and Villains, but since it's listed as it's own track we know it's not in H&V.  Oh, it's attached to I Wanna Be Around?  

No, I think you misunderstood me. I didn't say anything about drawing a line in the sand at the date the handwritten list was submitted. What I said was the attempt at a recreation of a 1966/67 Smile LP should stick to titles on the handwritten list in their most complete known form before it was announced the project was scrapped. This means Heroes & Villains is the Cantina mix (unless a later mix turns up), Fire is the '66 mono mix with the cracking noises, Child is the 11/66 Brian mix/edit or, maybe, an edit keeping that structure but using sections with the vocals.

[buddhahat]

Well I suppose AGD is well set in his ways after all these years.
You're all welcome to disagree, but I think I'm doing a much better job of getting into Brian's mindset and inspiration than many of you who want dismiss there being any deeper meaning to anything on SMiLE.

Fishmonk, more power to you and I enjoy a lot of your dissection of the lyrics. However, I think VDP, like Dylan, was into creating ambiguous lyrics. Ones that could be interpreted a multitude of ways. If VDP stumbled upon a fun alliteration or pun, why not toss it into the mix and see what meanings are generated. Maybe Windchimes is about death. Maybe VDP's subconscious was oozing death symbolism without VDP even knowing it! Or maybe it's just about windchimes. I think no one can say with certainty what the smile lyrics are specifically about. I think VDP enjoyed the art of obfuscation.

Likewise with Vegatables, VDP enjoyed the delicious irony of inserting the occasional drug allusion into a song about vegetables, but this doesn't mean the song is about drugs. If anything these guys were into bucking the trend - out and out drug songs would be too obvious and out of place in Smile if you ask me. But a casual wink to the drug users: "Did they just mean what I think they meant?" - I can see VDP getting into those sort of games.

BTW always love the way we see Brian's actual windchimes in that photo in LLVS where he's sat in his living room.

[Cam Mott]

Everybody's entitled to their opinion and mine is I bet we sort tend to over romanticize and interpret but on the other hand, having been a twenty-something male myself, I don't doubt that these two slipped in plenty of Beavis and Butthead kind of double meanings while snickering up their sleeves.

[pixletwin]

I had a friend who swore up and down that Hey Jude was about heroin. There was nothing I could say to convince him of how dumb that sounded either.

[drbeachboy]

I don't doubt that there are some drug references in Smile, as that was the thing to do in that era. To say that whole songs have all this hidden meaning is overstated. Plus, these are mostly Van Dyke's lyrics, not Brian's. Cam Mott is correct in my opinion; that we over romanticize Smile to the n-th degree. Almost or should I say exactly to the point of obsessiveness. I will admit Fishmonk that what you say is interesting, but I'm not buying into it- fully.

[Roger Ryan]

I don't think any of the SMiLE songs are first and foremost about drugs or death...however, those ideas could easily exist as a subtext, one that Brian and Van Dyke may have discussed (or even just felt without articulating). Violence or death is certainly not absent from SMiLE: it's there in the bullets that brought her down, in the "hall a cost (ly)...", in the deadly Chicago fire and, most prominently, in the decimation of the American Indian. Those aren't happy ideas and yet they are easily contained within a set of songs that appear upbeat and full of joy. I believe this is possible because they are presented from a Zen-like position of being above the fray, of finding enlightenment while accepting the hardships.

Something about the song "Wind Chimes" has always struck me as being sad/happy. Why is there an occasional tear rolling down the cheek? Is it a tear of joy? Maybe. But I always thought that symbolized a sort of wistfulness, that life was passing. When one meditates on life, or removes oneself from daily routine, the bigger picture emerges and that picture has to encompass both life and death. Three years later, Brian writes (on his own) "'Til I Die" which I think deals with similar subject matter. Now that song has been used as an example of "depressive" Brian (certainly by Mike), but the song isn't that depressing; it's from the same perspective as "Wind Chimes" in that the singer has stepped back and sees himself as part of something larger, something that diminishes his ego. Whether the term "hung up" is intended to be negative or positive (as in fascinated by), it implies that the singer has removed himself from a routine and is contemplating a greater meaning to his existence. It's only natural that death would be a part of those musings. On a more mundane note, since wind chimes are "hung up" on a tree or roof overhang in order to work, there is a play on words going on here which could very well have come from Mr. Parks.

As to "Vegetables": I assumed the coughing comes from having swallowed the wrapper instead of the candy bar. Could be innocent enough, but as I pointed out earlier, I believe the reason one band member says "wink wink" while the wrapper line is being sung is to clue us in to an alternate interpretation of the lyric.

[drbeachboy]

I was just thinking about the words "Hung Up" as in "...hung up on Wind Chimes". Could be the person is just messmerized by or fixated on the tinkling sounds. He just can't continue with what he was doing at that time. I grew up in that era, and that was usually how we used the expression.

[Runaways]

i see "hung up on wind chimes" just word play, since wind chimes are "hung up". 

[LostArt]

The December handwritten list...historically accurate, you say?  Yeah, I like that idea.  Okay, lets start with Heroes and Villains, we have that one.  We'll just put the one from the middle of December on there.  What's that you say?  We have never heard a version from the middle of December?  Well, let's just stick the February one on there, it's close enough.  Next?  I'm In Great Shape, hmmm, that's a little tougher.  Just how does that one go again?  It's attached to Barnyard?  Well, it was when it was a part of Heroes and Villains, but since it's listed as it's own track we know it's not in H&V.  Oh, it's attached to I Wanna Be Around?  

No, I think you misunderstood me. I didn't say anything about drawing a line in the sand at the date the handwritten list was submitted. What I said was the attempt at a recreation of a 1966/67 Smile LP should stick to titles handwritten list in their most complete known form before it was announced the project was scrapped. This means Heroes & Villains is the Cantina mix (unless a later mix turns up), Fire is the '66 mono mix with the cracking noises, Child is the 11/66 Brian mix/edit or, maybe, an edit keeping that structure but using sections with the vocals.

I wasn't directing my post at anyone specifically.  I was just saying that there is no way to make CD1 historically accurate, and I stick to that.  Look at all of the arguing and bickering that is going on in these threads about what should be allowed and what shouldn't...what should be presented and what shouldn't.  Everyone here, everyone, has a different opinion of what CD1 should be.  There was one poster above who said, regarding what songs should make up The Elements, "at the same time, i hope the new release proves me wrong."  Nothing about this release is going to prove anyone right or wrong about what was intended 45 years ago.  

The point to my post is that CD1 is going to be someone's interpretation.  It may use the same tracklisting as BWPS.  It may use a tracklisting more similar to the handwritten list.  However, whatever the tracklisting, it is going to be the same thing that BWPS is, and that is a presentation of the best available music, not as it would have appeared in '66 or '67 (because we have literally no way of knowing how it would have appeared at any given point in time during those months of recording), but rather in a way that is listenable and enjoyable.  And since there is no way to present the material in a way that is historically accurate or definitive, I say just give us the most complete versions of everything that is available from the '66-'67 sessions in the best possible fidelity, and let each of us choose the correct way to put it together.  We're all going to do that anyway, so what does it matter if a song is on CD1 or CD4.  That's all I'm saying.  

Now, I understand that their mission is to present a listenable version of the "quote album", and I'm smart enough to understand that they can't release this package without that.  If they want to put Carl's stereo 20/20 vocal on a mono version of Cabinessence (or Cabin Essence, or Herbal Essence), that's fine, as long as we also get the best possible version from the '66 sessions.    

It's just freaking fantastic news that the sessions are finally being released, and I'm going to enjoy the hell out of whatever the producers put together on CD1, just as I will enjoy what gets put on the other discs.  I'm sure we all will.  

P.S.
Fishmonk, are you 'nobody'?        

[drbeachboy]

I really think the layout of Disc 1 will be the way Brian wants it. Although the tracklisting may vary a bit, it seems pretty sure that it will be in 3 Movements. Just that in itself says a lot. But we'll see. I'm sure they will be tinkering with that all Spring and into early Summer before they settle on all the hows and whats.

[buddhahat]

Something about the song "Wind Chimes" has always struck me as being sad/happy. Why is there an occasional tear rolling down the cheek?

Interesting thoughts and I agree about the sadness in the song. I have often wondered if the tinkling pianos coda, with the little descending runs Brian plays, is echoing the tear rolling down the cheek and slowly building up to a rain shower - sure sounds like rain if you listen with that in mind.

[guitarfool2002]

At what point does an analysis of a song like "Wind Chimes" need to enter the subconscious of the person who wrote the lyrics in order to prove or disprove a theory? And at that point wouldn't it create a situation where even the person who wrote the words could say "this is what I had in mind when I wrote it", or the person who was married to that person could say "this is what they had in mind as they wrote it", and anyone analyzing from a distance could rebuke that in any number of ways by offering theories on hidden meanings and deeper thoughts than perhaps the creator ever imagined based on their own perception of the lyrics? It's bordering on analysis based on imagination and the subconscious mind with only a set of lyrics as proof.

Like a Rorschach test, it's basing a theory on individual perception of an object when there is no hard evidence to back it up, only theory and analysis. If I'm shown an inkblot image that I think looks like a bird, and someone else sees it and says it looks like a cloud, then the person who drew that image comes along and says they actually drew a picnic table, whose analysis is correct? Would we argue the person meant to draw a cloud when he really drew a picnic table?  I never thought of the "Wind Chimes" story until reading the above posts, and yes, it would seem the person who lived in the house with the set of wind chimes that inspired the song would be a pretty reliable source on what inspired the song. I'd say that person would know more intimately than anyone analyzing from afar.

[Dunderhead]

As to "Vegetables": I assumed the coughing comes from having swallowed the wrapper instead of the candy bar. Could be innocent enough, but as I pointed out earlier, I believe the reason one band member says "wink wink" while the wrapper line is being sung is to clue us in to an alternate interpretation of the lyric.

The coughing sounds don't happen during that part, they happen in another part of the song so I don't think there's a connection. If that was really what Brian had in mind, why wouldn't he have put the coughing under that lyric?

Something about the song "Wind Chimes" has always struck me as being sad/happy. Why is there an occasional tear rolling down the cheek? Is it a tear of joy? Maybe. But I always thought that symbolized a sort of wistfulness, that life was passing. When one meditates on life, or removes oneself from daily routine, the bigger picture emerges and that picture has to encompass both life and death. Three years later, Brian writes (on his own) "'Til I Die" which I think deals with similar subject matter

This was essentially my interpretation as well. so...
The song is not about death, it's about preoccupation with death. It's not depressive in the same way as 'Til I Die. That song is more grim and nihilistic, about how life is so difficult and Brian is just waiting for Death. Wind Chimes is not like that at all, Wind Chimes is about fear of death, and overcoming that fear.


I dunno, you guys act like I'm some type of nutter for even suggesting that maybe the songs on SMiLE were about something. I don't think great art is unconscious, I don't think that all meaning is unintended. What are you guys a bunch of post-structuralists? I think there's a lot of evidence that there's subtext in vegetables, evidence that you guys have yet to confront.

[Roger Ryan]

One of the great things about Brian's songs is that they are able to capture fairly sophisticated emotions/ideas in a simple setting. "Won't last forever/it's kinda sad" floors me every time I hear "When I Grow Up". Sure the song is an adolescent musing on confronting adulthood, perfect for the Beach Boys' audience. But it doesn't stop there; the backing vocals count off the years as we hear "won't last forever", an objective statement on the fleeting nature of life. Then Brian adds the subjective "It's kinda sad" and we realize that thoughts of entering a new stage in one's life come with a price (recognizing how temporary it all is).

For me this is a fairly profound moment and it's captured in basically seven words. "Now and then a tear rolls down my cheek" is another such moment and it changes how I view "Wind Chimes".

It's not depressive in the same way as 'Til I Die. That song is more grim and nihilistic, about how life is so difficult and Brian is just waiting for Death. Wind Chimes is not like that at all, Wind Chimes is about fear of death, and overcoming that fear.

I agree that the tone of "'Til I Die" is more nihilistic, but for me the vocal round at the end emphasizes that the singer has made peace with his place in the universe and recognizes that these things will be unchanging throughout the remainder of his life. It's a way of accepting one's circumstances and moving on and, therefore, I feel the song is not that pessimistic.

[Runaways]

I agree that the tone of "'Til I Die" is more nihilistic, but for me the vocal round at the end emphasizes that the singer has made peace with his place in the universe and recognizes that these things will be unchanging throughout the remainder of his life. It's a way of accepting one's circumstances and moving on and, therefore, I feel the song is not that pessimistic.

i think it's him accepting that he's gonna feel like nothing till he dies.  pretty pessimistic. 

[drbeachboy]

I don't think you are a nutter. I thinks its cool that the lyrics are written in such a way that you can take out of it whatvever you want. It's part of what makes me want to Smile when I listen to it. Can you dig it?

[Roger Ryan]

I agree that the tone of "'Til I Die" is more nihilistic, but for me the vocal round at the end emphasizes that the singer has made peace with his place in the universe and recognizes that these things will be unchanging throughout the remainder of his life. It's a way of accepting one's circumstances and moving on and, therefore, I feel the song is not that pessimistic.

i think it's him accepting that he's gonna feel like nothing till he dies.  pretty pessimistic. 

Feeling like a cork on the ocean, a rock in a landslide or a leaf on a windy day is NOT feeling like nothing. Those are tumultuous images; they are all related to the feeling of not being in control of one's life. But that feeling is fairly universal. The first statement in a common 12 step program requires that you admit you are not in control and religions, both Eastern and Western, request that you give up (the illusion) of that control. Because this state of being is impossible to change, you could see the song as pessimistic. Acceptance of this state of being makes the song optimistic. Which one is it? I guess it depends on the listener.

I would classify a song like "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" as being somewhat pessimistic in that the singer sees no hope for how he will fulfill his ambitions (or how those ambitions will be recognized by his peers). But "'Til I Die" is about coming to grips with one's ego; it's a more mature, more spiritually affirming song than IJWMFTT.